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Dan Barry was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, but considers South Hadley, Massachusetts his hometown. He is a former astronaut who currently spends his time building robots for his own company, Denbar Robotics. Barry's work and research has been supported by the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Grass Foundation and the American Heart Association of Michigan. He has five patents and has had over 50 articles published in scientific journals.

For his work and accomplishments, Barry has received numerous special honors and awards over the years, including the 1971 McMullen Engineering Award, the 1984 Young Investigator Award from the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from St. Louis University in 1996; the Vladimir Komarov Diploma from Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1998; an Honorary Life Membership from the United States Tennis Association in 1999, inclusion in the list of 100 Most Notable Princeton Graduate School Alumni of the 20th Century in 2001, and both the Paul J. Corcoran Award from Harvard Medical School and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Beloit College in 2003.

Barry is a member of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Association of Academic Physiatrists, Sigma Xi (a scientific group), Association of Space Explorers and the United States Tennis Association.

In 1971, Barry graduated from Bolton High School in Alexandria, Louisiana. In 1975, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University. In 1997, he received a master of engineering degree and a Master of Arts degree in electrical engineering/computer science from Princeton University. In 1980, he received a doctorate in electrical engineering/computer science, also from Princeton. In 1982, he received a doctorate in medicine from the University of Miami. In 1985, Barry completed an internship and a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at the University of Michigan. He was then appointed by the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and in the Bioengineering Program. He spent the summers of 1985-1987 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, working in skeletal muscle physiology at the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Barry was offered tenure at the University of Michigan in 1992. At the same time, he was selected by NASA to train at the Johnson Space Center and opted to relocate to Texas. He completed one year of training and qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews. A veteran of three space flights, Barry has logged over 734 hours in space, including four space walks. He retired from NASA in April, 2005.

Barry currently lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts with his wife of 24 years, Sue. They have two children, Jenny and Andy, and one dog, Windy. He enjoys flying, tennis, sailing, ultimate Frisbee and running. His birth date is December 30, 1953.

This Thursday night’s premiere of Survivor Panama: Exile Island ordinarily wouldn’t cause much of a stir in the space blogosphere. But in case you missed it, one of the 16 contestants for the reality show’s $1 million prize is former shuttle astronaut Dan Barry. His competition includes Courtney, a 31-year-old performance artist from L.A. who teaches fire dancing, Aras, a 24-year-old yoga instructor from Santa Monica who used to play pro basketball in Lithuania, and Tina, a 45-year old female lumberjack from Wisconsin who owns the world champion "Chics with Axes" team.

Long-time NASA watchers will be interested to learn from Barry’s Survivor bio that his favorite movies are Apollo 13, Dirty Harry and Speed, he cheers for the Red Sox and his preferred cereals are Cap’n Crunch and Sugar Smacks. Those sorts of details always were omitted from his NASA astronaut biography in favor of stuff like "He spent the summers of 1985-87 at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, supported by the Grass Foundation for work in skeletal muscle physiology and as the Associate Director of the Grass Foundation Fellowship Program."

As an astronaut, Barry flew aboard three shuttle missions between 1996 and 2001, including two to the international space station, and performed four successful spacewalks. He is widely considered one of the smarter guys on the planet. His Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton and medical degree from the University of Miami earned him the nickname "Dr. Dr. Dan."

Barry apparently will need all of his smarts to "outwit, outplay and outlast" the other 15 people who are "stranded on an island off the coast of Panama." Maybe that NASA survival training will come in handy.

The Modern Renaissance Man, Dan Barry GS '80 Has Been Inventor, Astronaut and Doctor

By Kate CarrollPrincetonian Staff Writer

The Daily Princetonian

An astronaut who has logged four space walks, an inventor who holds five patents, a robot designer and a doctor, Dan Barry GS '80 has entered yet another exciting role — as a competitor on "Survivor: Panama – Exile Island," airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.

After a long and varied career — from the halls of academia to outer space — Barry has decided to test his mettle on the notorious reality show.

"Now that he is retired as an astronaut, he thought, 'What can I do?' " Barry's niece Ann Easley said.

During the first four episodes, Barry has already formulated a specific strategy.

There are a total of 16 competitors on "Survivor" and when the show began, the group was split into four four-person teams. Barry, 52, forged alliances with his three "older men" teammates and later encouraged his team to recruit a fifth, an "older woman," to their group.

"He's trying to get five people to agree that they will not vote each other off," Easley, who was appointed by Barry to speak for him until he is voted off or wins, said. "It's a really neat strategy."

Barry's plan, if successful, will keep him in the game until his allies are the only ones remaining. "That's when everything can start imploding," Easley explained.

Even so, Easley said she thinks Barry has a good chance of winning because he has kept his integrity, giving no reason for other participants to dislike him.

"We think that, so far, he's the most stand-up person in terms of being loyal and being honest," Easley said. "I don't see him doing a lot of backstabbing on that show, which is kind of what that show is made of."

Barry was a "Survivor" fan before he even came on the show.

"Anyone who knows my uncle knows that he is always up for a good game, loves to play games, loves to solve puzzles, and his mathematical brilliance made him decide that "Survivor" would be a great way to challenge himself both mentally and physically," Easley said.

This was not the first big change Barry made in his life.

After receiving a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, Barry moved to Princeton, where he earned two masters degrees and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science.

In 2001, he was listed as one of the 20th century's 100 Most Notable Princeton Graduate School Alumni.

Easley said she remembered going to visit him on the East Coast when she was younger.

"We all had stickers from Princeton. He used to pass out stickers saying 'here's the Princeton mascot, put them all over your house,' " she added.

After earning his Princeton doctorate, Barry continued on to the University of Miami Medical School, where he received his M.D. He then traveled to the University of Michigan as a resident and eventually professor. Though e was offered tenure at Michigan in 1992, he decided to go to NASA instead and completed training to be a mission specialist on a Space Shuttle flight crew. He soon logged 734 hours in space, going on three space flights and four space walks. In 2005, he retired as an astronaut and promptly started his own robotics company.

Now he's on TV, and in this newest challenge, his family will support him regardless of his success. "The family is excited for him and we're rooting for him," Easley said. "We know he's got the brain and we know he's got the brawn."

NEW YORK, March 10, 2006CBS) The run for the money is all over for Dan Barry, the scientist and former astronaut who was booted out of "Survivor: Panama — Exile Island" after a 24-year-old La Mina tribemate said his ouster would improve the tribe's odds of victory.

"This is a young people's game right now," said Austin, a novelist and model from North Carolina, making his ultimately successful pitch to Dan's until-then ally, Terry, a 46-year-old American Airlines pilot and retired Navy fighter pilot. "You know we can take you a lot farther in this than (Dan) can."

It wasn't what Dan expected — he'd predicted a tie — he and Terry sticking together, taking sides against Austin and Nick, a 25-year-old waiter from Arizona who hopes to become a lawyer.

In an interview Friday morning on The Early Show Barry told co-anchor Harry Smith he was sorry to go home, and felt let down by his former ally.

"I was disappointed in Terry, that's for sure," Dan said. "In 'Survivor' you can't always count on your buddies staying your buddies, but I thought he was strategically smarter than he turned out to be."

When he failed to bring his team to victory with the giant puzzle, it was another nail in the coffin. As a former astronaut, he admits, it should have been a piece of cake.

"Hey, I am great at solving puzzles, but I couldn't do it last night. And sometimes, you know, you just have a day like that," he told Smith. "You put together 12 or 15 days with no food and hardly any water and not a whole lot of sleep and, bang, some of those scopes go out the window."

There's no doubt the lack of food took its toll. Barry said he lost 32 pounds over 15 days and a secret scene of him, shown only on The Early Show, revealed how serious the situation had become.I was walking back and forth from there and I'm out of breath. The last couple of days I find the smallest tasks leave me kind of out of breath. It's amazing, just walking around somehow just saps your energy. I feel a little out of breath there and I decide to sit down for a minute. It has been tough for me. Starvation is no pleasant thing and that's exactly what we're undergoing here.Smith wondered whether Barry had made a mistake by forming an all-boy alliance, but the castoff said it was actually the right thinking.

"I think that that was a pretty good move, actually, because there were four boys and there were three girls, and it could have easily gone the four young ones against the three old ones," he said.In spite of the hardships, Barry said he fully appreciated the beautiful surroundings.

"I loved that place. It was so beautiful," he told Smith. "Every morning it became a saying around camp. I would get up and say, 'Another beautiful day in paradise.' I saw two new species of birds every day. The iguanas would come up to the fire and you could just pet them. They hadn't seen people. It was completely back to nature."

As to why an astronaut, having completed four spacewalks, would want to experience "Survivor," Barry says he saw it as a very different kind of challenge.

"When you do spacewalks and you are an astronaut, you have a thousand people supporting you," he said. "They help you every step of the way. They ensure your success. I wanted to see how it would be when you don't have that kind of backup. What was it going to be like?"

Perhaps a moment of adulation from Nick, earlier in the game, helped lull Dan into a sense of security.

Paired together on a raft in search of something to catch and eat — a mission without reward — Dan let slip the fact that he's an astronaut, news that stunned his fishing buddy.

"I never thought I'd even meet an astronaut, never mind live with one," Nick said later. "I mean, the guy's looked at the earth from space."

As for Casaya, we may already see some foreshadowing of things to come, and it's not looking too good for Shane.

The 35-year-old Los Angeles entertainment products marketer, who's said he is good at manipulating people without having them feel resentful, misfired when he attacked tribemate Danielle for her earlier move in swinging the vote to throw out Bobby.

"We made the wrong decision," said Shane, training his discontent on Danielle, a 24-year-old medical sales rep, athlete and former model. "We made that decision because of your personal feelings, period."

A no gain moment for Shane, as the next morning the women of Casaya got up early, plotting against him, with Danielle branding him "a lunatic."

Another Casayan says he's pretty sure that Shane's days are numbered.

"Unless (Shane's) somehow able to find a way to apologize to the girls and say, 'Look, I really didn't mean it,' I feel like that guy is going to go home," says Aras, a 24-year-old yoga instructor from California.

What does Dan think of Terry’s decision to avoid a tie by voting him off? Hint: see the title. But there’s much more than that in this interview with Dan, including a rundown of how he did in every challenge, including some things we didn’t see.

While we saw Dan accept responsibility for the challenge loss and leave the game with his honor intact, Dan didn’t just throw himself on his sword. What does he have to say about Terry’s decision to vote him out? Read on to find out this and some of Dan’s other thoughts on the game.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Dan, and thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for RealityNewsOnline readers. What was your original plan coming into Survivor, and how did it change when you were first put on a team of all “older” men and then quickly shuffled up after that?

Dan: My plan was to find an ally that had already established good long-term relationships in their real life, so that they understood how to form a tight bond. Then the two of us would find three others to make a strong group of five.

It worked well, for a while. Terry was the obvious choice at first, we recruited Nick and Austin and Ruth-Marie when the tribes merged.

RNO: You’ve probably reflected on this quite a bit – what do you think happened in the puzzle portion of your final challenge?

Dan: Hey, some days you do well, some days you don’t. Just the day before that puzzle challenge, I was diving to underwater coffins, holding my breath forever, and we established a huge lead over Casaya.

RNO: If the tables had been turned and it looked like the young guys were going to target Terry, would you have gone with them or would you have tied it up and risked getting yourself booted?

Dan: I would have tied it up, since it is so important to go the merge with strong allies. Also, a tie would have resulted in a Tribal Council challenge between the two tied players (you only pull rocks if there are more than four people establishing a tie), so if they were voting against Terry, causing a tie would not have endangered me. It didn’t matter anyway, since Terry had the hidden immunity idol.

RNO: Did you make an attempt to debate against the idea of voting you out, or did we see a representative sample of the discussions on TV, with you taking responsibility and accepting that you’d be voted off?

Dan: We talked all afternoon about it and I was surprised that Terry didn’t see what I thought was an obvious strategic situation (don’t vote off your allies, particularly when they have a friend on the outside of the other team’s alliance).

RNO: Do you feel there was anything you could have done to change the voting outcome?

Dan: It was a very difficult spot because Terry had the hidden idol. That meant that Austin and Nick would have to risk their own safety to vote against him and they were smart enough to not do that. I was surprised that Terry did not see the strategic picture that with me gone, he was on his own in the merge and that’s a tough spot to be.

RNO: If Sally hadn't been taken out of the equation, would voting her off have been as obvious a choice as everybody was saying?

Dan: Yes, the men’s alliance was solid on that score.

RNO: Twice now we’ve seen Terry ditch allies when it became inconvenient for him – first Ruth-Marie and then you. What are your thoughts on that?

Dan: I thought it was very poor strategy to vote against your allies. Furthermore, Ruth-Marie and Cirie were good friends. Bruce and I were also friends. With Ruth-Marie and me in the merge, we very likely would have had Cirie and Bruce on our side. Finally, if you look carefully at the challenge performances, Ruth-Marie and I did well compared to others. Let’s go through them:

Cracking skulls — Ruth-Marie beat Danielle. Paddling and puzzles — I found the directions in the sand to solve the puzzle. Obstacle course — Ruth-Marie figured out how to get us over the big ramp fast, we did it by climbing up Sally’s and Ruth Marie’s backs, turns out that’s a cheerleader move. Also, I am the one who found the final snake that led to victory as La Mina and Casaya were in the leaf boxes. Shoot the balls — Ruth-Marie and I each shot three balls (it was edited for the show) and all the ones we shot were caught and scored points. Wrestle in the sand — Ruth-Marie was the only woman who scored a point for our team. I was initially tossed down by Shane, but then I held Aras down for the duration of the point which we won when Austin pulled Shane over to our target. Puzzles floating in the water — we lost when Terry brought back a duplicate puzzle piece, so our puzzle was not solvable. Balance beam – I fell off the beam once, but hey, at least I was trying. Nick felt too woozy to be on the course. Fish toss – Sally had trouble catching the fish. Coffins underwater — I dove with Terry (he had the mask) and we got a huge lead over Casaya. Jigsaw puzzle – Sally and I just couldn’t figure it out. It was not good timing to be off that day! RNO: Do you think telling the others that you were an astronaut ended up hurting you at all?

Dan: No, I waited to tell people until they knew me as “Dan” first.

RNO: On a non-Survivor note, what can you tell us about your Space Shuttle missions – what did you do?

Dan: I was a mission specialist, a career astronaut responsible for shuttle systems, payloads, doing spacewalks, and operating the shuttle’s robot arm. I was fortunate to fly three shuttle missions, do four spacewalks, and visit the International Space Station twice. It was a childhood dream come true for me and was wonderful! Someday I hope that spaceflight will be something everyone can do. The view of the earth from above the sky is something you should see!

RNO: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Dan: Every day was “another beautiful day in paradise.” I would get up at dawn and say that each morning and it became a theme for us. The animals on the island were so tame, you could pet the iguanas. Getting to live with nature was a fantastic experience.

Astronaut Blasted Off Survivorby Allison CorneauRetired rocket man Dan Barry spends his days building robots but found himself struggling to put together a much simpler puzzle on last week's Survivor: Panama—Exile Island (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET on CBS). As a result, the 52-year-old father of two found himself packing his bags after copping to his poor performance on the immunity challenge, thus diluting La Mina down to three members going into the tribal merge. TVGuide.com spoke with the space man about how his NASA excursions affected his island outlook, who he's rooting for to win Survivor and more. TVGuide.com: How has the reaction been since your elimination aired?Dan Barry: It's been pretty positive. It's a disappointment to go home, but I feel like the things I did in the game were well represented. I'm pretty satisfied with the performance.

TVGuide.com: It's so nice to see someone own up to their actions and accept their fate with the vote. You should be commended for your graceful exit.Dan: Thanks.

TVGuide.com: You have taken part in three NASA shuttle flights, spending a total of 734 hours in space. What, if anything, from your space travel or study prepared you for Survivor?Dan: It isn't specific skills as much as the sense that "I can do this," that it isn't impossible. I brought to the island a spirit that isn't going to be broken, despite the challenges. That's what you get from training, and also from the life experiences of seeing people who struggle and work through it.

TVGuide.com: You really opened up to the La Mina guys when discussing your career. Were they as receptive as you had hoped?Dan: Absolutely. I didn't want to tell people before, because I wanted them to see me as Dan — not somebody with this special job or past. Once I told them what I'd done, they were really curious about it. Austin was like "I knew you did something!"

TVGuide.com: How'd you get the nickname "Dan Fuego"?Dan: That was awesome, because I was "the fire guy." In fact, I was really hoping we'd end up at a tribal-council challenge, which is usually to build fire. I'd get right through that.

TVGuide.com: During your elimination episode, Sally said she would be surprised if "the La Mina Boys Club" stayed intact. Now that Terry's up against the younger guys without you, how do you think the tribe will fare? Dan: I think Terry has already shown them that he's not a real reliable ally. He cut away his two best friends. He's got a long, lonely road to walk.

TVGuide.com: When Terry returned from Exile Island, did you have an inkling he had found the immunity idol? Ruth Marie told me she could tell just by the way he spoke. Dan: When we were going to tribal council and Terry said, "Let's all bring our satchels — as a symbol of unity for Ruth Marie," I was like, "Hmmm, why are we bringing our satchels? Ohhh...." We didn't come right out and ask him, and I'm realizing now that I didn't talk to Nick or Austin about it. I assumed that they knew, but it's possible they didn't. [Terry possessing the idol] was a huge issue because if he had it, Nick and Austin couldn't vote against him — they'd just be voting against themselves. That left me with very few options. If I couldn't get Nick or Austin to vote against the other guy, I had to get Terry to vote against one of them, which was what I thought he'd do.

TVGuide.com: What was that immunity challenge like? Those puzzle pieces looked really heavy!Dan: They were heavy, but looking back, it wasn't that hard of a challenge. Some days you have your act together when you do it, and some days you don't. That's life. [Laughs] If your timing was bad and the day your act wasn't together was the day someone was going home, you put yourself on the line.

TVGuide.com: Your tribe had a bit of a lead once Terry stepped in, but Casaya ended up solving the puzzle more quickly. Was your initial strategy to try to copy their puzzle?Dan: We should have killed 'em, but we didn't. Sally was great, and she told us to put the first piece in the spot she thought was right. While it was the right spot, it wouldn't fit. We were over there working it when I turned to look at Casaya and saw they already had one piece in. I should have told one of our runners to watch Casaya. If we had seen right away when they got their first piece in, we would have been set. Maybe that strategic error was my bad.

TVGuide.com: When Sally was on Exile Island, she said she considered it a vacation from the guys. What was it like at camp while she was away?Dan: She got immunity! I should have asked Casaya to send me [to Exile Island] — they might have, if I explained how I screwed up the puzzle. They may not have thought too hard about it and sent me. Camp was lousy when she was gone because we had to decide who we were going to vote off. [Laughs] It wasn't lousy because we missed Sally so much as the fact that one of us was going home.

TVGuide.com: La Mina seemed to bond extremely well since the creation of the tribe in Episode 2. Were you happy with how the team came together?Dan: I knew I really wanted to be in La Mina. When it came down to the end, Cirie was picking between Bruce, me or Bobby. She looked right at me and I had to make a decision about whether or not to smile, be nice and have her pick me, but be on Casaya. I just smiled, looked down and so she picked Bobby. Then I gave Ruth Marie the million-dollar smile and she picked me.

TVGuide.com: What does your family think about your time on Survivor?Dan: They think it's a hoot and a half — they love watching my silly adventures. My wife is like, "That's just my idiot husband doing his idiot things." [Laughs] But when you come home, it's time to take out the garbage, just like it always is. They were unbelievably supportive. Just think of the impact [a husband-father] going into space three times has on a family, then picture me coming home and saying I want to go on Survivor. I am so lucky to have them.

TVGuide.com: What made you try out for this latest "silly adventure"?Dan: I was a fan of the show. Not a fanatic fan, but I thought it was an intriguing thing to do. When you fly in space, you have about 1,000 people making sure you'll be successful, and I thought it would be interesting to try a different challenge where you don't have that kind of support. Survivor was an interesting model for what we have to do in long-duration space flights, having a small group of people in a confined space under a lot of stress with continual monitoring, where everyone has to get along with each other and perform well in emergencies. There's not really another model out there that incorporates all that.

TVGuide.com: What are you up to now that you're retired from NASA?Dan: I build robots for my company, Denbar Robotics.

TVGuide.com: Who are you rooting for to take the Survivor: Panama title?Dan: Sally. The reason she's still there, as opposed to Misty, has nothing to do with challenges or that sort of thing. If anything, Sally should have gone for losing the spear. It's all about Sally's love for the show. Where she works, she's known as "Survivor Sal," she applied for five years before finally getting on and she knows everything about the show. I'm amazed she got Ruth Marie voted out. Go, Sally!

TVGuide.com: Lastly, what is one item future Survivors should pack in their suitcases that you wish you had brought?Dan: What you should pack in your suitcase is the spirit of never giving up. Beyond any other resource or skill, that spirit is key to Survivor — said by the guy who got voted out sixth! [Chuckles]